An Outbreak of Pestivirus Infection in Sheep in West Kordofan, Sudan

During April- May 2010 an outbreak of a disease with obvious nervous and respiratory signs in sheep was reported in west Kordofan State in western Sudan. Four flocks at four different locations in the State were investigated. The deaths by the disease versus the total number of animals in the different areas were 18/150, 1/200, 3/280 and 17/300. The main clinical symptoms observed in adults and young lambs were central nervous signs and respiratory signs; most lambs were weak and emaciated with rough coats. Sera were collected from 11, 18, 19 and 4 of animals in the four flocks, respectively. Bacteriological examination on tissue samples did not reveal any positive results. Using competitive ELISA, antibodies against pestivirus were detected in 10/11, 7/18, 7/19 and 1/4, respectively of examined sheep sera in the different locations. RT/PCR using pestvirus specific primers to examine the lung and sera samples showed positive results for one lung and 17 sera samples, and sequence data indicated that the causative agent was Bovine viral diarrhea virus-1 (BVDV-1). This is the first report of BVDV-1 outbreak in sheep in Sudan.